Ideas need action. Entrepreneurs build companies

So why don't more people launch startups? One answer is they overestimate the risks. The reasons you think you want to get into business – to be your own boss, to build something new, to make money, or the like – are not what truly matters. Instead what matters is if you really have an ideal solution to start a viable business, and if you have the passion and willpower to turn that idea into a real company. Your ideas need action; entrepreneurship means taking actions that move ideas forward into the world. If you think an idea through enough and take enough action on it, then it may become pivotal in another person's life. You may even build something that becomes very valuable.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Every reasonable person has lots of ideas floating around in their head. Many of these ideas are good, but most are discarded because real execution is where the rubber meets the road. Ideas need execution for them to become palpably useful and valuable. I need to emphasize this again, Good ideas are a dime a dozen, but where do they go? They languish in notebooks and random thoughts. They fail to become more than just dreams and aspirations.

The first thing to understand about ideas is that they are simply a multiplier of execution. An idea has no value unless it is executed. In entrepreneurship, you can't just sit around and think of ideas or wait for them to happen. You need to make things happen. Most startup founders are former entrepreneurs who had businesses that failed or were successes; when founders don't execute their ideas well enough, their companies fail and they try again with new business models — usually different from the previous failing one.

For a creative idea to get the world's attention, it's got to be used by people. An entrepreneurial culture constantly churns out new companies and products.

Ideas are great, but they're not worth much unless you turn them into reality. Some great inventions never make it to market, and most never make any money. Many great companies fail in their early days.

Ideas generate action. Action brings results. If you don't get some results, then it's difficult to say that your idea is working.

Ideas are useless unless they turn into action. It's the implementation, in whatever form that comes, no matter how small that separates those who live their dreams from those who dream about living their dreams.

I also frequently come across bright people who have an idea they claim is "like Apple", but they lack the determination to develop it. To achieve your initial aims, ideas need action. You don't get far in life just by thinking up good ideas, no matter how good those ideas are. If you want to start a new business, you need to think about all the practical steps involved in getting it off the ground. You'll need a site for your product and a plan for getting customers to visit it and buy your products. Thought alone got you excited about that product? That's not enough by itself!

The value of an idea should be judged on the extent to which it can be acted upon. You should be able to describe what actions you have taken towards inventing that idea. What was the motivation behind this action? Inventing is a professional act, and if it is instigated from personal passion, then it has a better chance of being successful. If you are confident about how your idea can change the world, you need to also demonstrate that you have the will and drive to pursue and witness this change. This can manifest itself in a series of steps: you blog about it and follow up with links in your contacts; you research more about your idea with the help of other resources available online; if possible, you invest some money in order to try out your first prototype; if that works, then you will see a possibility where a product or service could already be developed.

If you are an entrepreneur, you aren't just someone who runs a company. You are the reason the company exists at all. You start ventures, building them from your imagination and drive based on your passion about how much better the world could be

Every time you buy something from a business, you're buying from an entrepreneur. Everything from apples to zippers to oil changes began with someone dreaming it up, pitching a plan for it, getting investors on board to help get it going, and then building the company that made it.

The problem with startups is that they look easy. The press likes to talk about them. Filmmakers like to make movies about them. But our impressions are based on the very few successes we see, not the enormous number of failures. It is not that easy to build a successful company. It is doable but difficult. Don’t be fooled.